“关灯” means to “switch off the lights,” and “吃面” means to “eat noodles.” This term, often used by Chinese stock investors, depicts the despair and disappointment felt by those who have lost a lot of money in their investments. The term originated in a post that appeared on a stock forum in December 2011, when an investor of Chongqing Brewery Co., Ltd. (SH 600132) described his despair after the company’s stock price dropped from around 80 yuan to 20 yuan in nine straight days. “I returned home today, cooked myself some noodles and wept as I ate. I didn’t turn on the light, my tears slipping into the bowl,” the post read. The company’s stock nosedived after it announced the failure of a hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccine it had been working on. “Eating noodles in the dark” has since been used to describe sad Chinese stock investors.